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Outgoing Showrunner Steven Moffat Admits Doctor Who Almost Lost Its Christmas Slot

The much-touted Doctor Who Christmas Special of 2017 was almost scrapped entirely.

That’s according to outgoing showrunner Steven Moffat, who recently sat down with Digital Spy to discuss all thing pertaining to the TARDIS, along with the long-anticipated changeover that will see Peter Capaldi bow out via a “beautiful” regeneration scene and essentially pass the torch (or should that be sonic screwdriver?) on to Jodie Whittaker of Broadchurch fame.

It’s a transition that has placed Doctor Who fans on red alert in anticipation of this year’s festive special, “Twice Upon a Time,” though as Moffat revealed to Digital Spy, the BBC had initially planned to scrap Who‘s 2017 Christmas outing altogether in favor of another show, which would have made it fairly difficult to regain said window in the future. But don’t fret, for Steven Moffat quickly stepped up to the plate – you know, after a drink or four. Hey, there’s nothing like Dutch courage!

There was one big glitch, which was Christmas. I was going to leave at the end of series 10 – I had my finale planned and what I wanted to do with it. I had a good notion of that. Then I learned at a drinks event somewhere that Chris didn’t want to start with a Christmas, so at that point they were going to skip Christmas. There’d be no Christmas special and we would’ve lost that slot. Doctor Who would’ve lost that slot if we hadn’t [done a special] because Christmas Day is now so rammed. So I said, probably four glasses of red wine in, ‘I’ll do Christmas!’ and then had to persuade Peter [Capaldi] that’s how we were leaving.

Meanwhile, on the topic of Chris Chibnall taking over at the helm, Steven Moffat welcomed the new showrunner into the Doctor Who family, and told Digital Spy that BBC’s swashbuckling sci-fi series is being left in very capable hands.

It’s like handing over any job. Though Chris was incredibly, and is incredibly, fastidious about not wanting to seem to lurk behind me, ready to knife me in the back! I never felt that – he was absolutely welcome to be there any time he wanted, I had no problem with it all. He’s a good friend.